A Moment Behind
by walkingonawire
Summary: Blaine hadn't seen his brother since he walked out on them last summer. After the accident though, it looks like Cooper's back and he isn't planning on leaving any time soon.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with glee in any way.  
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**Note: This will probably have themes in it (I haven't decided yet) that some people may be uncomfortable with. As such I will post a warning at the start of the chapter if there's anything that people might not want to read. **

* * *

It was quiet; the only sound that he could hear was an eerily consistent beeping coming from somewhere to his left. As his eyes strained to open he felt as though he were trying to push through water with how heavy they were.

"Morning squirt".

Instinct told him to turn his head to search for the sound, but the instant that he tried to twist his neck he was overcome by pain; White, burning and insistent. It radiated outwards from his chest, flooding into each limb and remaining like dirty water in the street after a big downfall. He couldn't see, couldn't hear; the pain was all consuming. As it finally began to recede he reopened the eyes that he hadn't even realised he'd shut tight, as if that would have helped to deal with the pain. Breathing heavily, his chest still felt like it was on fire. How was it possible for one person to feel so much pain?

"Easy there, buddy" the voice spoke up again, soft and reassuring. He knew that voice, though he didn't hear it as often as he'd like. "I'll call the nurse for you" it promised, its owner reaching down to press the button on the side of the bed. Blaine watched as his he moved to rest his elbows on the guard and buried his face in his hands.

Blaine couldn't speak, though he desperately longed to comfort that man standing over his bedside. Only able to move his eyes for fear of the pain he'd just experienced, he searched for his brother's face. He didn't know where he was, didn't know how long he'd been there or why he was hurting so badly, but he knew that Cooper was hurting too and he couldn't help but want to fix it. Cooper's brow was creased and there were dark shadows under his eyes, obvious even from where Blaine was lying on the plastic bed, wrapped in thick white sheets that were only ever used in hospitals. He wondered how long his brother had been there, or if anyone else had come to visit him. Mostly he just wanted to know what had happened though, the last thing he could remember was dancing in the ridiculously decorated gym at school.

It had been a good night, Jesse's dad had taken them to school in his prized Mercedes Roadster and aside from a few people staring at them, they'd mostly been left alone. Blaine could remember laughing at himself as the two of them jumped up and down to the fast paced music, but that was it. Had something happened on the way home? Did they get into a car accident? Was Jesse alright? His mind was bombarded with questions that Blaine didn't know the answer to and it was starting to make him stressed.

The beeping of his heart monitor sped up rapidly as Blaine struggled to calm down. Cooper, jumping up fully alert when he saw the state Blaine had worked himself up into reached for Blaine's cheek, forcing the smaller boy to look at him.

"Blaine, Blaine, look at me. You're okay, you're fine. No one's going to hurt you" he promised, his tone almost begging Blaine to calm down. Blaine was too far gone though, his mind unable to cope with the shock of waking up in a strange place with no memory of how he got there. Hyperventilating, Blaine tried to keep his eyes locked on Cooper's. He knew his brother was telling the truth that he was safe, but that didn't help the fact that Blaine was more scared than he could ever remember being. Struggling to get enough air to fill his lungs as he gasped for breath, he felt like his chest was on fire as his ribs protested against the sudden movements.

As a nurse rushed in to give Blaine more painkillers, his breathing finally began to slow and it didn't take long for him to start feeling cloudy again. Though his vision was fading, Blaine could see Cooper over his bed looking worried; his eyes searching for some kind of reassurance that his little brother was going to be alright. Unable to hold his eyes open any longer, Blaine stopped fighting against them and fell back to sleep.


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with glee.**

Warning: There's not really much in here, but if you don't like slash fiction or fics about incest then you might want to go back right about now.

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_18 months ago_

It shouldn't be this way. What was wrong with him? What kind of a person had a thought like that? It was 100 different kinds of wrong, and then after that it took a wrong turn towards worse. It wasn't like he was even gay, how did he go from completely and utterly straight to thinking about his own brother in a way that the 14 year old probably wouldn't even understand. Oh god, he was a pervert too. His brother probably hadn't even made out with a girl for the first time yet. What was wrong with him? It was only a tiny little thought, barely even crossed his mind, but still it did and he hadn't been able to stop judging himself since it had.

It wasn't as if he didn't have other people to think of that way, because he did. Actually, that might have made it worse. Cooper was no stranger to sex, he had an absolutely gorgeous girlfriend too; the stereotypical blonde cheerleader with legs up to her armpits that someone as easy on the eyes as Cooper was supposed to have. He didn't even know why it happened; he'd never even considered it before. Why would he, it was his baby brother for god's sake and he really did like Sarah, or at least he liked the way they looked together. Sue him, he was in high school and he looked hot with his girlfriend he wasn't stupid enough to think someone could ever be in love with someone they met in high school. Regardless of whether he loved her or not, he was still getting laid on a pretty regular basis considering he was only a senior in high school and so the fact that he had thought about Blaine doing anything even slightly related to that was fucking horrible and he didn't even have the excuse of being so horny that everyone and their dog turned him on. Not that that would actually ever happen of course…

Above all of course, not even considering the why it had happened part of the issue was just the fact that it _had_ happened. Blaine was his baby brother; he was still in middle school for god's sake. Cooper could barely remember being 4 years old when Blaine was brought home from the hospital and being sat down by his dad about how that now he was a big brother he should look out for Blaine. Cooper had taken it all very seriously or at least until recently apparently; he hadn't laughed when Blaine tried to jump off the swing at the park and landed on his butt, he had shared his toys and as he'd gotten older his jokingly teased Blaine about all the pretty girls in his class just like a big brother should. He knew that he would have done anything to protect Blaine, when had that turned into something unhealthy though? They were pretty close sure, but lots of brothers were good friends too, right? It wasn't unusual to see them spread out on the couch watching some movie together or making up some silly song and dance routine for their parents. 18 years old or not, Cooper still loved performing with his brother; he was a talented little kid.

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They were sitting on the Cooper bed together; Blaine was trying to help him study for finals. Cooper had never been particularly fantastic as school but he wasn't atrocious either. Blaine was a freaking genius though, the little 14 year old probably understood half of Cooper's Literature stuff than he did. So that's why instead of locking himself in his room the weekend before his first exam, Cooper had practically dragged his brother towards his books to help him out.

"Okay, so what are the main themes in the text? Cooper, Cooper… Hey, are you even listening to me?"

Cooper turned his head from where he was gazing out the window, staring straight into space. They had been at this for almost three hours now and Cooper was struggling to stay focussed. "Not really. Come on Blaine can we go and get something to eat, I'm starving."

Blaine rolled his eyes dramatically in a way that only a 14 year old boy could. "Seriously, Coop? We haven't got much to go, and mom's probably only going to be another half hour on dinner."

"Oh don't be such a spoilsport, Blainers. I need a break anyway; none of this is going in right now so I'm just wasting your time." Cooper rolled off of the bed and landed with a thud on the carpeted floor. "Come on, Squirt. I'll even make us some popcorn and we can watch your choice of movie."

It was a tempting off, Cooper didn't offer to make snack for just anyone and he always did something to the popcorn that made it taste just that little bit better that Blaine hadn't quite worked out yet. He supposed it was Cooper's exam too and he couldn't really force his brother to study if he didn't want to. "Okay, fine. But just so you know I want to watch Pirates of the Caribbean." He knew that if anything was going to change his brothers mind that would be it, Blaine had made him sit through the Johnny Depp movie so many times that he was pretty sick of it.

Cooper wasn't falling for it though; he could deal with a little Orlando Bloom if it meant he didn't have to think about Mr. Darcy anymore. Seriously, that guy had a huge stick up his ass. "Deal, meet you back up here in 10" He said before rushing downstairs to make the popcorn.

He made it back in 9 minutes, just in time to see Blaine stick the DVD into Cooper's Xbox. That and his TV had been a gift from his parents the year before and he and Blaine had certainly made use of the present since then. Bouncing back down onto his bed, Cooper stuck the popcorn in between the two of them and reached for the remote to press play.

About an hour into the movie the popcorn was gone and Blaine was still watching the screen intently, Cooper, however, was half asleep with his head buried in his younger brother's shoulder. Blaine's shoulder was softer than Sarah's and he smelt better too. Cooper's girlfriend always smothered herself in some weird perfume that just brunt Cooper's nose when he had his face tucked against her neck. She was still good for some things though, after all she wasn't shy about it when she wanted to get on her knees for him. Okay, so he may have been dating someone with a bit of a reputation but she was nice enough and he only had another few weeks left of school and then they were both go their own ways without any regrets.

Not really awake but not yet asleep either, Cooper buried his face further into Blaine's neck. It really was so much nicer than Sarah's. For a second it crossed his mind what other things Blaine might be better at than Sarah but that was all it took. Within an instant Cooper was fully awake and pushing himself as far away from his little brother as he possibly could. Where the hell had that come from?

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Fuck, he needed to stop thinking about this. He was going to drive himself crazy stressing about what all of this meant. All he knew was that it wasn't right and he couldn't let it happen again. He had to get out of here, it was only a week until graduation and then he could go and never look back. True, he hadn't planned on moving to LA until the end of the summer when college was about to start but he couldn't hang around here for 3 months with things like this.


End file.
